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  • The WW2 spy killed in mystery crash days after the war ended

    The WW2 spy killed in mystery crash days after the war ended

    Eighty years after the end of World War II, one of the conflict’s most decorated joint heroes of Wales and France remains at the center of an unresolved, little-known mystery: how exactly did Jacques Vaillant de Guélis meet his death just days after the guns fell silent in Europe?

    Born in 1907 in central Cardiff to French parents who built their fortune exporting Welsh coal to Brittany, Vaillant de Guélis was a polyglot Oxford graduate with a thriving career in advertising when war broke out across Europe in 1939. Like many of his generation, he walked away from his comfortable civilian life to enlist in the British Army, and his unique background – a French-born upbringing paired with deep roots in the UK – quickly caught the eye of Britain’s most elite covert organization: the Special Operations Executive (SOE), the shadowy unit tasked with sabotage and resistance building behind enemy lines.

    Vaillant de Guélis’s military career was defined by near-miraculous escapes and relentless courage from its earliest days. In 1939, he served as a liaison officer with the British Expeditionary Force, and after Germany’s invasion of France forced the Dunkirk evacuation, he immediately volunteered to return to occupied France in June 1940 to help evacuate thousands of stranded Allied soldiers. When he completed that mission, it was too late to escape across the English Channel, so he led a small group south through Marseille, crossed the Pyrenees into neutral Spain, where he was interned for months before British diplomatic efforts secured his release and a return to Scotland.

    That bold exploit put him on the SOE’s radar in April 1941. Recruited by Major Lewis Gielgud (brother of legendary actor Sir John Gielgud) and even reportedly interviewed for the role personally by Prime Minister Winston Churchill, Vaillant de Guélis began his career as a covert operative. He completed four separate missions behind German lines over the course of the war. His first deployment, in August 1941, saw him parachute into Vichy France, where he supplied resistance fighters with forged documents, radio equipment, and critical military intelligence to coordinate attacks against Nazi forces. After successfully completing that mission, he extracted via a rough, makeshift airstrip picked up by the Royal Air Force.

    By 1943, Vaillant de Guélis had joined General Charles de Gaulle’s Free French Army in North Africa, fighting through the North African campaign before joining the assault to liberate Corsica, where he saw brutal hand-to-hand combat to oust German forces from the island. After D-Day in 1944, he was once again dropped behind enemy lines, tasked with coordinating resistance cells to disrupt German retreats from the Allied advance. Author and World War II historian Greg Lewis, who has researched Vaillant de Guélis extensively, notes that deploying an operative of his seniority and knowledge of SOE networks directly into the field was extremely risky – but Vaillant de Guélis’s proven skill and local familiarity made him irreplaceable.

    It was his final mission, however, that would end his life just days after the war in Europe officially ended. On May 16, 1945, just eight days after VE Day, Vaillant de Guélis was sent to the newly liberated Flossenbürg concentration camp near the modern-day Czech-German border to gather intelligence on captured SOE operatives who had been imprisoned and killed there. While he was standing just yards from the camp gates, he was struck by a car driven by a German soldier who had worked as a camp guard just days earlier. He was rushed to emergency care in Paris, then transferred to a military hospital in Staffordshire, England, where he died from his injuries three months later on August 7, 1945.

    To this day, the circumstances of the crash remain unclear, fueling decades of speculation. Many have suggested that Vaillant de Guélis may have been deliberately targeted by a former Nazi camp guard who wanted to prevent evidence of war crimes from reaching Allied authorities – evidence that would later be used to prosecute Nazi leaders at the Nuremberg Trials. Lewis, who first became interested in Vaillant de Guélis while researching Cathays Cemetery in Cardiff, where the hero’s ashes are buried in a family plot, says there is no concrete evidence to support claims of an organized assassination. But the speed with which the case was closed – it was shut down almost immediately after it was opened – and the lack of surviving documentation has left critical questions unanswered. Lewis acknowledges that while chaos across post-war Germany makes an organized plot unlikely, a rogue former Nazi acting alone to silence Vaillant de Guélis cannot be ruled out.

    Vaillant de Guélis was posthumously honored for his extraordinary bravery by both his home nations: he received the Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) from the United Kingdom and the Croix de Guerre with Palm, France’s highest award for gallantry, from the French government. Today, a blue plaque marks the Cardiff building where he was born, honoring his service. For Lewis, the tragedy of Vaillant de Guélis’s story extends beyond his early death: unlike many SOE operatives who survived the war and left firsthand recollections of their service, all that remains of his legacy is an official military file, with no personal memoir or firsthand account of his extraordinary exploits.

  • Sudan was already at war and hungry. Now its farmers are hit by another conflict

    Sudan was already at war and hungry. Now its farmers are hit by another conflict

    Two years after Sudan’s brutal civil war drove him from his small family farm, Omer al-Hassan finally made the journey back to his land in Omdurman, clearing weeds, plowing dry soil, and preparing to plant for the first time since he fled. But a new wave of unrest sweeping the Middle East has now derailed his hopes, sending critical agricultural input prices soaring and pushing him and millions of other Sudanese farmers further into financial ruin and food insecurity.

    Al-Hassan and thousands of small-scale producers across Sudan are now bracing for one of the costliest planting seasons in recent memory. Many have already announced deep cuts to planned production, while some vulnerable smallholders have opted to skip planting entirely—a devastating development for a nation already grappling with three straight years of armed conflict that has left more than half its population facing acute hunger.

    “The conflict linked to Iran has upended every part of our agricultural work,” al-Hassan told the Associated Press during an interview as he and his crew harvested onions from his recently cleared plot. After two months of backbreaking work to restore the overgrown land, he said, “We put our faith in God, but even after all that struggle, we still go without meals some days. We simply can’t keep up with the costs.”

    Along with the 10 seasonal workers who help tend his farm, which also produces potatoes and tomatoes, al-Hassan says the group cannot cover operating costs without government financial support. That has already forced them to slash planted acreage and ration fertilizer use across the property. Another local farmer, Mohammed al-Badri, confirmed he can only afford to plant half of his arable land this season, leaving the rest uncultivated: “The other half is just wasted. We can’t do anything with it.”

    The root of this new crisis lies in disruptions to global trade chokepoints tied to Middle East tensions. More than half of Sudan’s imported fertilizer arrives by sea through the Gulf region, where hundreds of commercial vessels have been stranded for weeks amid heightened tensions around the Strait of Hormuz. The resulting supply crunch has pushed up domestic fuel prices by roughly 30% nationwide, with fertilizer costs skyrocketing even faster.

    Those increases have in turn driven sharp spikes in retail food prices across Sudan, hitting already cash-strapped households the hardest. The nation’s core staple crops—sorghum, millet, and sesame—are now at severe risk of production shortfalls this growing season. Farmers already reeling from the ongoing internal conflict between Sudan’s military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces now face cascading cost increases for fertilizer, gasoline for farm tractors, and diesel to power irrigation pumps.

    Abdoun Berqawi, a farmer in Gezira, Sudan’s most productive agricultural heartland, described the situation as a “dangerous reality” that will collapse small-scale farming without urgent government intervention. He shared data showing the cost of a 50-kilogram bag of urea fertilizer has jumped from $11 a year ago to roughly $50 today, while tractor fuel has surged from $2.50 to $8 per gallon over the same period. Officials from Sudan’s Ministry of Agriculture have not yet responded to requests for comment on what steps the government is taking to address the emergency.

    Melaku Yirga, regional vice president for the international aid organization Mercy Corps, who recently traveled to Sudan’s key agricultural states of Kassala and Gedaref, warned the timing of the crisis could not be worse. The Middle East tensions have triggered a “dangerous chain reaction” just as farmers begin preparing for planting, he explained. “People are already buying less food, cutting or skipping meals entirely, selling off critical household assets, and taking dangerous risks just to put food on the table,” Yirga said. “Mothers are forced to make impossible choices about which of their children get to eat the little food available, and some families are even eating wild leaves or animal feed to stay alive.”

    For farmers who borrowed money from banks to cover planting costs, poor harvests this year could lead not just to bankruptcy but jail time for unpaid debts, said Merghany Omar, a farmer based in al-Matammah, River Nile province. He added that even onion farming, a reliable cash staple for smallholders in the area, no longer generates enough revenue to cover basic input costs.

    Samy Guessabi, country director for Action Against Hunger in Sudan, noted this new crisis is layered on top of pre-existing systemic vulnerabilities, including dramatic currency depreciation that has already eroded purchasing power across the country. The hardest-hit communities are in remote agricultural regions including Kordofan, White Nile, Darfur, and Blue Nile, Guessabi said, where “farm zones are cut off from major markets and have very poor transport connections.”

    Even in Sudan’s urban centers, retail prices for fresh vegetables and dairy products have risen by roughly 40% in recent weeks, driven directly by fuel price increases. Before the latest crisis sparked by Middle East tensions, the ongoing civil war had already pushed millions of Sudanese into hunger. The United Nations World Food Program currently estimates 19 million Sudanese face acute food insecurity, with millions more on the edge of famine. Famine was officially declared in two major regions, Darfur and Kordofan, last year.

    The emergency has also severely disrupted international humanitarian aid efforts already stretched thin by the conflict. WFP says food assistance shipments bound for Sudan are now forced to travel more than 5,500 additional miles to reach their destinations, adding massive extra costs and weeks of delays. That diversion is largely a result of commercial vessels avoiding the Bab el-Mandeb Strait at the southern end of the Red Sea, another critical global shipping chokepoint, where Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen have threatened commercial traffic.

    Mubarak al-Nour, a veteran farmer and former parliamentarian in Gedaref, said even when farmers do manage to secure fertilizer, ongoing shipping delays mean many will miss the critical June-to-November planting window entirely. In response, some producers have already shifted away from high-value, fertilizer-intensive crops like corn and sesame, switching to lower-yield crops that require little to no chemical fertilizer.

    Even if agricultural supplies do reach Sudan in time for planting, the challenges do not end there. Mathilde Vu, advocacy manager with the Norwegian Refugee Council, explained that fuel shortages in many parts of the country are also worsened by warring factions blocking supply routes, while local fuel markets have been heavily damaged by bombing in recent months amid a sharp escalation of drone attacks across the nation.

    Reporting for this story was contributed by Khaled from Cairo. The Associated Press receives financial support for global health and development coverage in Africa from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The AP maintains full editorial independence over all content.

  • Partial results show losses for Starmer’s Labour and wins for Reform UK in local elections

    Partial results show losses for Starmer’s Labour and wins for Reform UK in local elections

    LONDON – Early partial outcomes from England’s 2025 local elections have delivered a sharp early warning to Prime Minister Keir Starmer and his governing Labour Party, with the party facing significant electoral setbacks and the hard-right Reform UK party, under the leadership of veteran populist politician Nigel Farage, recording major vote gains.

    Counting for the nationwide local contests, alongside separate elections for the devolved legislatures of Scotland and Wales, kicked off overnight Thursday, with results continuing to roll in across the full day of Friday. Early counts were concentrated in smaller regional authorities, with full results from major population centers including London, a long-time Labour stronghold, still pending by early Friday.

    In the working-class regions of northern England that have historically leaned Labour, Reform UK’s early performance has shaken British political observers: the party has already secured hundreds of local council seats in constituencies including Hartlepool, a result that underscores its growing traction among disillusioned working voters. Farage’s party has positioned itself as a radical right alternative to both major parties in recent years, capitalizing on public frustration over post-Brexit economic stagnation and migration policy to build support.

    Political analysts across the UK have framed these local elections as an informal midterm referendum on Starmer’s leadership, less than two years after he won the 2024 general election that brought Labour back to power after 14 years in opposition. Early signs of a heavy Labour defeat have already fueled speculation of internal unrest within the party, with restive backbench lawmakers reportedly preparing to push for a leadership challenge if the final overall result proves catastrophic for Labour.

    Even if Starmer manages to fend off an immediate challenge to his leadership, multiple senior political analysts have cast serious doubt on whether he will remain in post to lead the party into the next required national general election, scheduled to take place no later than 2029. The growing speculation has prompted a public intervention from Starmer’s own deputy, Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy, who has urged party factions to stand behind the current leadership, warning that “you don’t change the pilot during the flight.”

    As counting continues through Friday, political leaders and observers across the country are waiting to see whether the early grim trends for Labour hold in results from larger, more heavily populated areas, a final outcome that could reshape the trajectory of British politics for the rest of the decade.

  • Elaborately decorated skeletons in Catholic churches across Bavaria take some visitors by surprise

    Elaborately decorated skeletons in Catholic churches across Bavaria take some visitors by surprise

    In the ornate Baroque Catholic monastery church of Banz, nestled near the Bavarian town of Bad Staffelstein in southern Germany, a striking, centuries-old exhibit continues to draw curiosity and quiet unease from visitors: four fully intact skeletons, draped in luxurious silk and brocade, embellished with gemstones, delicate filigree gold, silver and fine lace. These remains, known by the names Vincenzius, Valerius, Benedictus and Felix Benedictus, count among Europe’s little-known collection of catacomb saints, a set of religious relics with a unique history stretching back hundreds of years.

    These holy skeletons were transported from Roman catacombs to the Benedictine monastery between the late 17th century and mid-18th century, a period when demand for early Christian martyr relics boomed across Catholic Europe. For many first-time visitors, the display is unsettling. “It’s actually a little creepy,” church custodian Anita Gottschlich shared quietly, standing before one skeleton whose hollow eye sockets seem to lock gaze with onlookers. Even so, Gottschlich notes the relics hold enduring cross-generational fascination: older guests who first saw the skeletons as children still make a point to seek out what locals call the Holy Bodies, their memories of the display undimmed after decades.

    While catacomb saints may be unknown to many modern travelers, their decorated remains can still be found in dozens of Baroque churches and monasteries across Bavaria, as well as in neighboring Austria, Switzerland, Czechia and their native Italy. Most are permanently displayed in glass, coffin-style cabinets, keeping the long-dead relics accessible to visitors centuries after they arrived.

    The story of catacomb saints begins in 16th century Rome, when excavators uncovered thousands of unmarked graves in the city’s ancient underground catacombs. Church leadership quickly classified all uncovered remains as early Christian martyrs, making them desirable relics for churches and monastic communities across the continent. “At the time, the church simply designated them all as saints,” explained Walter Ries, the Catholic priest who serves the Banz church congregation today. “And of course, in many countries, including Germany, people wanted to have such holy remains, such relics, simply because this enhanced the status of their own church or monastery and perhaps turned it into a place of pilgrimage.”

    Banz Monastery itself has changed dramatically since the four skeletons arrived. Founded by Benedictine monks in 1070, the community flourished for more than 700 years before it was dissolved in 1803 during widespread German secularization. Today, only the church remains an active place of worship, housing a small congregation of just 211 people, while the former monastery buildings are occupied by a political foundation. “A great deal has changed over the course of the centuries,” Ries said. “Back then, these relics were very important, but today they really aren’t anymore.”

    The surge in devotion to catacomb saints in the 17th and 18th centuries emerged from a period of profound crisis in central Europe. Just decades before the Banz skeletons arrived, the region was still recovering from the Thirty Years’ War, a brutal conflict that began as a religious struggle between Catholics and Protestants and killed an estimated 4 to 8 million people through combat, famine and widespread disease. “That was a terrible time,” Ries said. “And so people tried to open the gates of heaven through the Baroque. That’s why everything was designed so beautifully. It was an escape from the present, which was often so terrible. That’s also why these eerie skeletons were so beautifully draped and depicted as lifelike as possible.”

    Abbots of Banz Monastery sent official delegations to Rome twice, first in 1680 and again in 1645, to secure the four relics. After their arrival, nuns from the nearby town of Bamberg spent hours carefully adorning the skeletons in the lavish textiles and finery they still wear today.

    To this day, the Holy Bodies are only put on full public display for special religious occasions including All Saints’ Day. For most of the year, wooden panels painted with portraits of the saints cover the glass display cases, turning a rare viewing into a meaningful experience for faithful visitors. According to Günter Dippold, a historian who has spent years researching both catacomb saints and the history of Banz Monastery, the elaborate decoration of the skeletons serves a specific theological purpose that many modern visitors miss.

    The adornment “is not meant to show the dead body of a saint, but rather to show his glorified body,” Dippold explained. “It is therefore intended to show the faithful who view it what we will look like after the resurrection, after being raised from the dead, when we no longer have our earthly bodies but rather glorified ones.”

    —
    This report is part of Associated Press religion coverage, supported through a collaboration with The Conversation US via funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP holds sole responsibility for all content.

  • Hungary’s incoming prime minister plans a ‘regime-change celebration’ to mark Orbán’s departure

    Hungary’s incoming prime minister plans a ‘regime-change celebration’ to mark Orbán’s departure

    BUDAPEST, Hungary – On Saturday, a historic political transition will unfold in Hungary’s capital: incoming center-right Prime Minister Péter Magyar will take his oath of office inside the country’s iconic neo-Gothic parliament building, while thousands of supporters gather on the adjacent square to celebrate the close of Viktor Orbán’s 16 years in power.

    Last month, Magyar’s newly formed Tisza party delivered a stunning rebuke to Orbán’s nationalist-populist Fidesz party, securing a landslide electoral victory unmatched in Hungary’s post-Communist era. The mandate, widely described as a political earthquake, clears the way for Tisza to reverse the controversial policies that led critics to label Orbán a far-right authoritarian, and to dismantle the economic network that enabled massive wealth accumulation among the outgoing prime minister’s close allies and family. Ahead of assuming governing duties, Magyar has called on all Hungarians to join an all-day “regime change” celebration to mark both his inauguration and the definitive end of the Orbán era. “We will step through the gateway of regime change with a huge party. Come along, and invite your family and friends!” Magyar shared in a social media post over the preceding weekend.

    A 45-year-old lawyer who built Tisza in 2024 after years as an insider within Orbán’s own party, Magyar has centered his incoming administration on undoing the harm he says the previous regime inflicted on Hungary and its people. Top of his policy agenda is unlocking roughly €17 billion (US$20 billion) in frozen European Union cohesion funds, which Brussels blocked during Orbán’s tenure over widespread rule-of-law breaches and corruption. This capital infusion is widely seen as critical to reversing four straight years of economic stagnation that has held back living standards for ordinary Hungarians.

    Magyar has also pledged to repair Hungary’s frayed relationships with EU partners, which Orbán pushed to near collapse during his final years in office, and to restore the country’s standing as a committed member of the community of Western democracies – a status that came under intense scrutiny as Orbán increasingly aligned Hungary with the Kremlin amid Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. In a tangible early signal of this new commitment, Tisza party officials confirmed that the European Union flag will return to the parliament building’s facade starting Saturday, 10 years after Orbán’s government ordered its removal.

    For the nearly 3.4 million Hungarians who cast ballots for Tisza, the transition comes with high expectations that the new administration will hold outgoing Fidesz officials and their business associates accountable for years of alleged misconduct. In response, Magyar plans to launch the National Asset Recovery and Protection Office, a dedicated new agency tasked with investigating and clawing back public funds misappropriated during Orbán’s tenure. He has also promised to suspend operations at Hungary’s public broadcaster – long derided as a partisan mouthpiece for Fidesz – until sweeping reforms can guarantee independent, objective news coverage.

    A full structural overhaul of Hungary’s government is also on the immediate agenda, with Tisza set to re-establish standalone cabinet ministries for health, environmental protection and education, all of which were merged under Orbán’s administration. To deliver on his promise of restoring professional competence to government, Magyar has nominated a slate of internationally recognized experts to top cabinet posts. Among them are veteran diplomat and foreign policy analyst Anita Orbán – who is not related to the outgoing prime minister – tapped for foreign minister; former Shell executive István Kapitány, selected to lead the economy and energy portfolio; and prominent economist András Kármán, nominated for finance minister.

    Saturday’s inauguration is scheduled to begin with Magyar’s oath at approximately 3 p.m. local time, followed by an address to the crowd gathered outside parliament, where the celebration will include live artistic performances and unannounced special guests. Separately, Gergely Karácsony, the liberal mayor of Budapest, has organized a parallel “system-closing” celebration along the banks of the Danube River, designed to honor Hungarians who spent years organizing opposition to Orbán’s government. “Teachers fired, civilians and journalists humiliated, small churches torn apart,” Karácsony wrote in his social media invitation. “We can finally leave this era behind us — but first, let us remember the everyday heroes and express our gratitude with a farewell to the system.”

  • Oil tanker arrives in South Korea after passing through the Strait of Hormuz in mid-April

    Oil tanker arrives in South Korea after passing through the Strait of Hormuz in mid-April

    SEOSAN, South Korea — A Malta-flagged crude oil tanker carrying 1 million barrels of Middle Eastern crude has reached offshore waters near South Korea’s west coast port of Seosan, industry officials confirmed Friday, marking a critical delivery for the Asian trade-reliant nation as it navigates escalating energy security risks tied to tensions around the Strait of Hormuz.

    The vessel, named Odessa, completed its transit through the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz in mid-April, a window that aligned with temporary ceasefire negotiations between Iran and the United States, according to HD Hyundai Oilbank, the South Korean refinery that procured the cargo. The tanker is on track to dock at the firm’s offshore mooring facility later the same day to begin unloading its shipment, which will then be processed into end products including gasoline, diesel, and naphtha at the refinery’s complex. HD Hyundai Oilbank notes it holds a total daily crude processing capacity of 690,000 barrels, making it one of the country’s major refining operators.

    For South Korea, an export-driven economy heavily dependent on foreign energy imports, this delivery arrives at a moment of acute anxiety over global supply chains. Over 60% of the nation’s annual crude imports and half of its imports of naphtha — a core petrochemical feedstock critical to plastics manufacturing — pass through the Strait of Hormuz each year. The 1 million barrels carried by the Odessa accounts for between 35% and 50% of South Korea’s total daily crude consumption, underscoring the scale and importance of the single shipment.

    Ongoing instability linked to the prolonged conflict involving Iran, paired with Iran’s control over chokepoint traffic that jolts global markets, has sent international fuel prices soaring in recent months, triggering fears of a full-blown energy crisis across South Korea’s trade-exposed economy. In response, the South Korean government has implemented sweeping emergency measures to curb runaway energy costs: for the first time in decades, it has imposed legally binding price caps on gasoline and other refined petroleum products, ordered domestic refiners to redirect existing naphtha cargoes originally destined for export to meet domestic demand, and launched a national push to secure alternative crude oil supply sources and alternate shipping routes to reduce reliance on the Hormuz chokepoint.

  • Hundreds of Iranian nationals detained by ICE amid June 2025 attack on Iran

    Hundreds of Iranian nationals detained by ICE amid June 2025 attack on Iran

    Newly released government data obtained through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request has exposed a widespread surge in detentions of Iranian nationals carried out by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that coincided with American and Israeli military strikes on Iran in 2025, according to the National Iranian American Council (NIAC).

    The advocacy group announced Wednesday that ICE ramped up arrests of people of Iranian citizenship and descent immediately following the escalation of conflict in the Middle East that began in late February 2025. Between the opening of U.S. military strikes in June 2025 and the following month, ICE recorded 300 total arrests: 220 detentions in June alone, and an additional 80 in July. This crackdown aligned with a major U.S. bombing campaign targeting three key Iranian nuclear sites—Natanz, Fordow, and Isfahan—carried out after Israel launched its initial attack on Iran.

    As of December 21, 2025, the total number of Iranian nationals held in ICE detention facilities across the country has reached 577. The demographic scope of these detentions is remarkably broad: records show the oldest detainee is 77 years old, while the youngest is a five-year-old child. The child was taken into custody in November, alongside individuals believed to be members of their immediate family, and is currently being held at the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas.

    NIAC’s analysis of the released records notes that seven of the 577 detained Iranians are legal permanent residents (LPRs), commonly known as green card holders. ICE has cited past criminal offenses as the official justification for holding these seven individuals. The full legal status of all detained Iranian nationals has not been disclosed by NIAC, and it remains unclear whether U.S. authorities provided complete information on statuses in their response to the FOIA request.

    This wave of detentions is part of a broader, escalating administration push to revoke legal residency for Iranian nationals already residing within U.S. borders. Earlier in 2025, the Trump administration revoked the green cards of three Iranian nationals, including the son of a figure connected to the 1979 Iran hostage crisis. Seyed Eissa Hashemi, his wife, and his son all lost their lawful permanent residence status; Hashemi is the son of former Iranian politician Masoumeh Ebtekar.

    The ongoing U.S.-Israeli military campaign against Iran, which launched on February 28, 2025, has drawn increased scrutiny to the targeting of Iranian community members within the U.S. by federal immigration authorities. In early April 2025, ICE arrested two women who had publicly claimed to be relatives of assassinated Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani. Subsequent reporting by Drop Site News, which verified the pair’s identities through Iranian birth records, government identification, family estate documents and other personal records, disproved these claims, confirming the women had no familial connection to Soleimani at all. In fact, outlet reporting found one of the women, Hamideh Soleimani Afshar, had participated in anti-Islamic Republic protests in Iran during the 1990s and 2000s, and served a week in prison for her activism before resettling in the U.S.

    The targeting of Iranian nationals comes as ICE broadens its crackdown on legal permanent residents across the U.S. In a separate high-profile case, Mohsen Mahdawi’s legal team confirmed Thursday that the U.S. Board of Immigration Appeals has reinstated deportation proceedings against the Palestinian green card holder. Mahdawi gained national attention for helping lead high-profile anti-war protests on Columbia University’s campus last year, and was originally detained by ICE during a scheduled citizenship interview in Vermont in mid-April 2024.

  • Alarmed ASEAN leaders discuss crisis plan to mitigate backlash from Middle East war

    Alarmed ASEAN leaders discuss crisis plan to mitigate backlash from Middle East war

    Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) leaders gathered Friday for their annual summit in Cebu, the central island province of the Philippines, facing mounting urgency to shield the bloc’s 600+ million people and interconnected economies from cascading spillover risks stemming from the ongoing conflict between the U.S.-Israel coalition and Iran. From the opening of the gathering, the shadow of the Middle East hostilities dominated the agenda, with top officials openly voicing deep alarm over the conflict that one senior minister says should never have been initiated.

    Ahead of the summit, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. made the unusual decision to scrap the traditional ceremonial fanfare and lavish pageantry that typically mark the annual gathering, a choice aligned with growing global economic headwinds that have squeezed budgets and raised cost-of-living pressures across the region. The shift in tone reflects the gravity of the challenges that leaders have gathered to address.

    Unlike past summits that balance multiple regional priorities, this year’s meeting is anchored by urgent contingency planning tailored to the bloc’s unique vulnerabilities. ASEAN’s fast-growing economies rely heavily on imported oil and natural gas from the Middle East, with nearly all seaborne energy shipments passing through the Strait of Hormuz, the strategic chokepoint where sporadic hostilities have continued even after a ceasefire took hold a month ago. Existing related coverage has already documented regional market volatility: Asian stocks have dropped while global oil prices climbed following recent attacks that threatened to collapse the ceasefire, just one example of the immediate economic spillover the bloc is working to mitigate.

    One of the most pressing humanitarian dilemmas facing ASEAN leaders is mapping out protocols for large-scale evacuation of ASEAN citizens from the Middle East, where more than one million Southeast Asian nationals reside and work. Already, multiple Southeast Asian citizens have been killed in military strikes launched by the U.S. and Israel starting February 28, and widespread escalation of hostilities would put the entire community at severe risk.

    A draft joint declaration obtained by the Associated Press outlines a coordinated regional response framework, calling on all 11 ASEAN member states to share real-time information and strengthen collaborative ties with global multilateral organizations to protect the safety and well-being of ASEAN nationals in conflict-affected zones. The contingency plan also lays out a suite of long-term and immediate energy security measures, including potential ratification this year of a cross-regional emergency fuel-sharing agreement, development of an integrated regional power grid, diversification of crude oil import sources, expanded adoption of electric vehicles, and exploratory research into emerging energy technologies including civilian nuclear power.

    While most senior ASEAN delegates stuck to the bloc’s characteristic cautious, restrained rhetoric in public remarks, Thailand’s Foreign Minister Sihasak Phuangketkeow broke ranks to issue a blunt call for action, demanding that the current ceasefire be extended indefinitely and that unimpeded safe passage for commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz be guaranteed. “This war should not have occurred in the first place,” Sihasak told the AP in an interview, noting that all ASEAN member states share deep alarm over the conflict. “We don’t know what the objectives are right? The peace talks seem to be moving but we want the war to end.”

    Even with the Iran conflict dominating the summit’s urgent priorities, leaders still scheduled time to address long-simmering regional flashpoints that have destabilized Southeast Asia for years. These include the ongoing territorial disputes in the South China Sea involving China, the five-year-long civil conflict in Myanmar, and the recent cross-border armed clash between Thailand and Cambodia.

    In a forthcoming separate statement on maritime issues set to be released after the summit concludes, leaders have pledged to work toward finalizing negotiations for an effective and substantive Code of Conduct (CoC) for the South China Sea. Negotiations for the proposed non-aggression agreement between ASEAN and China have dragged on for more than a decade, and tensions have escalated sharply in recent years, particularly between Chinese and Philippine maritime forces in contested waters.

    The slow progress on the CoC has fueled longstanding criticism that ASEAN functions as little more than an ineffective “talk shop,” where leaders gather annually for photo opportunities and symbolic displays of unity despite deep internal divisions over core geopolitical issues. Four ASEAN member states — Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam, and the Philippines — are directly involved in the decades-long territorial standoffs in the South China Sea, alongside China. The bloc’s other members include Cambodia, East Timor, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, Singapore, and Thailand.

  • CIA says Iran has 70 percent of pre-war missiles, can ride out blockade for months: Report

    CIA says Iran has 70 percent of pre-war missiles, can ride out blockade for months: Report

    A confidential CIA assessment delivered to the Trump administration this week has directly contradicted senior U.S. officials’ public claims about Iran’s weakened military standing and economic vulnerability to a U.S. naval blockade, according to a Thursday report from The Washington Post.

    On the economic front, the CIA estimates that Iran can withstand the ongoing U.S. naval blockade for an extended 90 to 120 days (three to four months) before it faces severe, widespread economic hardship. This projection is far longer than timelines offered by other independent analysts: Middle East Eye analysts have suggested Iran only has weeks of remaining oil storage capacity, while energy analytics firm Kpler estimated 25 to 30 days of storage before depletion in comments to The New York Times Wednesday. The Trump administration has pushed even more aggressive claims, with former President Trump telling Fox News last week that Iran’s oil infrastructure would collapse within three days due to overflowing storage.

    The intelligence assessment also challenges the administration’s claims about Iran’s devastated missile and drone capabilities, coming after weeks of joint U.S. and Israeli bombardment targeting Iranian military sites. The CIA confirmed that Tehran still retains significant ballistic missile capabilities, contradicting Trump’s Wednesday statement from the Oval Office that 80 to 82 percent of Iran’s pre-strike missile and drone infrastructure had been destroyed. Citing an unnamed U.S. official, The Washington Post reports Iran still holds 75 percent of its pre-conflict inventory of mobile missile launchers and roughly 70 percent of its original missile stockpiles, and has successfully resumed operations at underground missile storage facilities previously targeted in strikes.

    This disconnect between classified intelligence and public messaging has been ongoing for weeks: Trump and his top advisors have repeatedly insisted that U.S. and Israeli strikes have left Iran’s military crippled, even as Iran has demonstrated it retains full command and control over its forces and the ability to launch offensive attacks at will. U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth claimed in early April that Operation Epic Fury, the joint U.S.-Israeli strike campaign, had decimated Iran’s military and left it combat-ineffective for years. Yet just this week, Iran launched over a dozen missiles and drones at targets in the United Arab Emirates in retaliation for a U.S. warship’s attempt to traverse the Strait of Hormuz. Iran also claimed it struck a U.S. warship in the attack, a claim the White House has denied.

    The current standoff centers on the Strait of Hormuz, a strategically critical waterway where both the U.S. and Iran have imposed blockades to assert control. While Iran has been unable to move its own oil tankers out of the Gulf of Oman and past Hormuz, it has also blocked oil exports from neighboring Gulf states. Notably, Iran has alternative trade routes to mitigate the impact of the Hormuz blockade: it maintains access to the Caspian Sea for trade with regional nations including Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan, and shares overland borders with seven neighboring countries. For critical staple goods, Iran is already 80 percent self-sufficient, further reducing its vulnerability to the naval embargo.

  • Trump and Lula’s private Oval Office meeting signals lingering strain – and effort to avoid tension

    Trump and Lula’s private Oval Office meeting signals lingering strain – and effort to avoid tension

    On a Thursday visit to Washington D.C., Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva sat down for a high-stakes bilateral meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House, marking a tentative step toward de-escalation after months of public tension between the two major Western Hemisphere powers. While both leaders left the discussion offering positive public assessments of their dialogue, the absence of a traditional joint press appearance in the Oval Office has drawn attention to the unresolved disagreements that continue to shape U.S.-Brazil relations.

    In a post-meeting statement shared to his Truth Social platform, Trump described the closed-door talks as “very good” and praised Lula as a dynamic, engaged interlocutor. For his part, Lula told reporters he departed the White House “very satisfied” with the productive exchange of views. Even so, gaps between the two governments on core policy issues remain wide, and both leaders have openly acknowledged these divisions.

    The most prominent rift centers on trade policy. Lula confirmed that Trump has repeatedly criticized Brazil’s high import tariffs, saying the U.S. leader maintains the view that Brazil levies unfair duties on American goods. To bridge this divide, Brazil has proposed establishing a bilateral working group tasked with resolving outstanding trade disputes within a 30-day window. “Whoever is wrong will give in. If we have to give in, we will. If you have to give in, then you will have to give in,” Lula said of the proposed negotiation framework.

    Beyond trade, other flashpoints continue to strain bilateral ties. The two nations hold differing positions on combating transnational organized crime, U.S. military policy in Iran, and growing concerns over potential American interference in Brazil’s upcoming October general election. A particularly contentious issue raised by Trump during the meeting was his call for Lula to dismiss the conviction of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who was found guilty of orchestrating an attempted coup against Lula’s government in 2023 and sentenced to 27 years in prison.

    Experts on international relations note that the White House’s choice to skip a joint public appearance was not an accident, even as Trump asserted the meeting went smoothly. Oliver Stuenkel, an associate professor of international relations at São Paulo’s Fundação Getulio Vargas (FGV), pointed out that the lack of an official joint statement issued during or after the meeting makes clear that “some disagreements remain on the table.”

    Yet Stuenkel and other analysts emphasize that this omission does not mean the meeting was a failure. Dawisson Belém Lopes, a professor of international relations at the Federal University of Minas Gerais, argued that the cordial, red-carpet reception extended to Lula itself signals a long-awaited normalization of bilateral relations after months of open confrontation.

    “I would be careful not to exaggerate or over-interpret this cancellation [of the Oval Office press appearance],” Lopes noted. “Lula is treated as an important, respectable interlocutor. He was literally received with a red carpet and went there to discuss matters of state, regardless of the disagreements that may exist – and certainly do exist – between him and Trump.”

    In Lopes’ analysis, the Thursday meeting marks a deliberate shift in the Trump administration’s approach to Brazil. After months of public confrontation that yielded no policy gains for Washington, the White House has pivoted to a more pragmatic, less ideologically driven stance – a shift that first emerged when the two leaders met on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York back in September. Holding the discussion away from the intense public glare of a joint press conference is a deliberate choice that reflects this new, more restrained tone, he said, adding that “this meeting signals the arrival of a new moment in bilateral relations.”

    Stuenkel added that the three-hour length of the meeting itself suggests both leaders prioritized building a personal working rapport – a factor that holds particular importance in Trump’s approach to foreign diplomacy. He also noted that Brazilian officials never entered the meeting expecting immediate major concessions from Trump, especially on sensitive demands such as Washington’s request that Brazil designate certain regional political groups as terrorist organizations.

    “It was not realistic to convince Trump to reverse all the demands,” Stuenkel explained. From the start, Brazil’s core strategy focused less on scoring immediate diplomatic wins and more on reducing the risk of new, destabilizing points of friction between the two nations. “Perhaps it is neither so relevant nor so smart to seek a major victory… but simply to reduce the risk” of the U.S. moving toward new confrontations, Stuenkel said. In such a delicate moment for bilateral ties, avoiding public conflict between the two heads of state is itself a victory, he added.

    The proximity of national elections in both countries also creates shared political incentives to avoid high-profile public friction, analysts point out. Lula is running for re-election in Brazil’s October vote, and has a clear interest in avoiding controversial issues that political opponents could weaponize against him. For Trump, the meeting comes as he navigates domestic political pressure ahead of U.S. midterm elections in November. “It is in the interest of both parties not to create negative political facts and to manage the main points of contention,” Lopes said.

    This shared interest in avoiding unnecessary conflict may explain why the two experienced leaders opted to set aside the most intractable, “unsolvable from the outset” issues for future working group discussions, rather than forcing a confrontation during their summit. “Trump is no longer a beginner at this point, much less Lula. Since these are experienced diplomats, experienced heads of state, they try to steer away from obstacles that are insurmountable,” Lopes noted.

    In the end, Lopes assessed, the meeting can be seen as a win for Lula and Brazil, particularly given the major power asymmetry between the two nations. “The United States is more important to Brazil than Brazil is to the United States,” he said. “So in this case, if there was a draw, it is better for Brazil.”